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 We have already warned of the true reason for Minister Phil Hogan’s controversial €100 Household Charge. This money is being collected to “cut a stick to beat us.”
Those who believed that the expected €160 million in revenue from this new Household Charge would go towards providing additional funds for Ireland’s cash-strapped local authorities is in for a rude awakening, as we suspected.
Minister Phil Hogan’s controversial €100 Household Charge is being collected centrally and will provide little extra at local level, unlike the €200 annual charge for second properties, which goes to source.
In most European countries the local charges are designated for use in the areas where they are collected. It now looks like Tipperary funding will be used to clean up Dublin’s inner city litter problem, with any surplus funding used to install water meters, generating a new source of revenue, in desperation.
Take a look at Frank McDonald’s article in today’s Irish Times. it would appear the money flowing into Government coffers from this expected new payment will simply allow a reduction, by an equivalent amount, of the cost of the centrally controlled local government fund.
When you finish reading the above link, do familiarise yourself with the Household Charge website:
The Household Charge is an annual charge introduced by the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 which is payable by owners of residential property. It is a matter for owners of residential properties to register and pay the Household Charge on or after the 1st of January 2012.
The EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland commits the Government to the introduction of a property tax for 2012. We are one of the last countries in Europe that does not fund local services through local property-based charges.
These services are essential to your community. They include: fire and emergency services; maintenance and cleaning of streets; planning and development; public parks; street lighting; libraries; open spaces and leisure amenities. These facilities benefit everyone.
Minister, with respect, businesses and consumers, latter through Parking Charges, here in Thurles have been paying for these services for years. We don’t have public parks, open spaces and free public leisure amenities. Our streets are neglected and beyond the powers of our local Town Council to fix. Planning and Development is non existent. Follow the McCarthy Report recommendations please and reform local government. History will thank you.
It would appear that this Fine Gael government, unlike Fianna Fáil, does not even have the ability to cover up it’s own deceit.
It’s the day that we are informed that the former Irish Nationwide chief executive, Mr Michael Fingleton transferred €500,000 to an offshore bank account in Podgorica, just after he was hit with a €13.6m debt order by Ulster Bank. It is the day we learn that Financier Derek Quinlan, who reportedly owes €200 million personally to Nama, continues to live and pays €4,144 in weekly rent, for the right to reside in a period mansion in London. It is a day when it is confirmed that rising costs now leave elderly people in difficulty or unable to heat their homes.
Where Are Our Taxes Going?
Do please take the time to watch this short video hereunder and weep. This is real democracy, at least appearing to exist, in a country containing some 310,000,000 residents, while here on our island, home to 4,400,000 souls and rapidly decreasing, we have no voice as to how our future is to be directed. The last General Election has taught us that the Irish electorate are, in desperation, close to accepting the Government of this nation by nihilists – Sinn Feiners, Mings, and Micks who fuel protest, without offering any fair solutions to our current difficulties.
I do hope our readers have kept a copy of yesterday’s (January 21st 2012) ‘Sun,’ newspaper, where we are entertained with the headline, on page two, “Minister (Phil Hogan) Admits New Tax Is Unjust.” My Dictionary defines ‘Unjust,’ as “inequitable, partial, unfair, prejudiced, biased, undeserved, unmerited, unjustifiable, not just; lacking in justice or fairness.” With most homes in this country in joint ownership, the keeping of this paper could be used as justified defence evidence, when wives and husbands stand before “Your Honour” to explain why they refuse to pay Minister Phil Hogan’s admitted ‘inequitable,’ €100 Household Charge, which came into effect this month.
Here in Tipperary we ask a series of questions:- What are our taxes used for? Why do we continue to pay bankers annual salaries of €500,000 for work more perceptively undertaken by Credit Union managers, latter earning less than €120,000? Why are we being asked to pay for water carrying lime and other impurities, which rots our copper piping and in most cases from day to day, is undrinkable ? Why is rural Ireland continuously being robbed, to support a Dublin economy, while senior Cabinet Ministers continue to squirrel away any available funding to their own constituencies, bolstering their outcome in future elections? How long will Unions continue to dictate how our Civil Service is run?
Our Libraries, Schools and Courthouses are being threatened with closure, our waste collections systems have been privatised, our streets, pavements and roads are a national disgrace. Local justice, law and order are sliding down the slippery slope, while rape, stabbings and murder are now daily acceptable happenings.
Here in Tipperary, due mainly to a sort of ‘resigned acceptance,’ we continue to elect and support public representatives, with no power at the Cabinet Table and even less ability to protect and reform that which was gifted to us via Bertie, Builders, Bankers and the Galway Tent.
How long can we afford this resigned acceptance?
Let’s be honest TV schedules this Christmas were nothing to write home about, so most of my TV entertainment came by watching the truly magnificent multiple award winning “Downton Abbey,” TV series, (Both series 1 & 2) over the holiday period. Housekeeper Mrs Elsie Hughes, the character depicted by actress Phyllis Logan, reminded me so much of my late grandmother, who held a similar position, in the Powerscourt /Â Wingfield estate in Co Wicklow, in the early 20th century.
One of the quotes regularly repeated by grandmother, Eliza Jane, suddenly sprang to mind, “There are only two things of which mankind ever needs to be ashamed and both begin with the letter D, Dishonesty and Dirt.”
 First I should explain that I personally don’t have a problem with paying tax, but taxes in any fair society should be based only on the principle of ones ability to pay, which is why the fairest form of taxation will always be direct taxation.
The latest Fine Gael budget does not factor in an ‘ability to pay,’ concept, instead stinking to high heaven of both the aforementioned “dishonesty and dirt.”
I will deal only with the dishonest issues surrounding the new household tax in this blog, pointing out again that as a general rule, in relation to household tax and expected water charges, I would certainly agree to paying same, were they applied with fairness and were they ever to actually attempt reform to our now defunct and in some cases unnecessary local government, to the point where same actually served the needs of its people.
Fine Gael have done quite a job cleaning up their pre-election website, removing most of their dishonest and desperate promises, which assisted them in gaining power, this time around. Well they have not cleaned up everything;
Warning: Phil Hogan who assured the public, yesterday, not to worry about security on his Household Charge website, must be somewhat embarrassed over the past few days, since his own website has been identified as far from secure by two top Internet browsers, namely Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, both of whom warn all surfers, that his site contains infectious malicious software ( philhogan.ie – Please do not go there and open.)Â Do click on image above for larger resolution which explains.
One deletion from the Fine Gael website was their promise not to introduce flat-rate charge on householders. However, let me remind you of their promise to those who supported them, and whom I trust retain a longer memory than Minister Phil Hogan.
Fine Gael Quote: “Flat rate charges means that houses in standard neighbourhoods worth a fraction of some mansions will pay the same rate of tax. It will be difficult to pay for asset rich but income poor households, particularly the elderly and the unemployed; and it will be deeply unfair for a young generation that paid exorbitant amounts of stamp duty and VAT on the purchases on over valued houses, many of whom now find themselves in negative equity.“
Fine Gael’s apparent opposition to flat-rate household charges, based on fiscal benefit, efficiency and equity, were viewed by voters before the election, as worthy of support. Fine Gael, prior to this election, had made their stance crystal clear. Michael Noonan told the Dail that a tax on financial property, along the lines of the French tax, would yield between €400 to €500 million, and the great thing about such a tax was that it would have very little deflationary impact, since such a tax would attach itself naturally to only the very highest incomes.
The EU/IMF Memorandum of Understanding, regularly used by Fine Gael Ministers to excuse their poorly thought out policies, has no mention of a flat-rate household charge. It does state that Budget December 2012 should make provision for a ‘property tax,’ while Budget 2013 should then make provision for a further increase.
Fine Gael lied, this flat-rate tax, now introduced, is just about the most socially inequitable and economically inefficient tax one could possibly ever dream up, short of rule by dictatorship.
If our present Fine Gael & Labour Government ever had a mind to tackle the serious levels of inequality in our society, it would follow examples used by other European governments and increase income tax.
 Rural Ireland Tax Debate Needed
The debate must now commence, as to why those of us, who reside in rural areas, and who in most cases have to pay for digging our own wells, our own sewage system and it’s necessary maintenance, our own waste recycling, etc must now accept flat rate taxes. Rural Ireland with the exception of our towns and villages have no footpaths, we have no parks, we have no street lighting, yet we are expected to contribute for the benefit of the greater good. Has Phil Hogan visited Thurles Town recently, now displaying unacceptable broken footpaths, broken road signs and dirty neglect in evidence everywhere? Do take care coming over Barry’s Bridge Phil, should you accept my invitation, it is in danger of falling into the river Suir.
Yes we do get some benefit from local services, but our rural roads, whose maintenance we already support, through motor taxation, are now no better than gravel driveways, riddled with pot-holes.
Yes despite being in opposition, Fine Gael & Labour, you also must take some responsibility for our current financial predicament, so begin by casting aside the Dirt & Dishonesty. Like Google and Firefox warn ” Something’s Not Right Here!.”
 An Taoiseach Enda Kenny has just addressed the Irish Nation in a televised address, ahead of the announcement of promised austerity measures, which will be be unveiled in full, tomorrow and Tuesday in his governments Budget set out for 2012.
Mr Kenny clarified that the Irish State is spending €16 billion a year more than it is taking in revenue. He confirmed that in Budget 2012 public spending must be cut by €2.2 billion, and that extra taxes must raise €1.6 billion. He also confirmed Budget 2012 “will be tough“, and that “it has to be,” and would move Ireland towards a manageable deficit of 3% of our GDP by 2015.
Mr Kenny also confirmed that 50 quangos will be abolished, some through merging, the public sector will be downsized by 23,000 employees by 2015 and a referendum will be held next year to abolish Seanad Éireann.
Mr Kenny informed the nation that, while he believed recovery had begun, the mistakes which brought this country to its knees “must never be allowed to happen again.”
All in all, while his speech may have raised the cost of advertising fees for RTE 1 TV, for both before and after the event, the speech itself was badly written, totally lacking in any inspiration needed to “Rally the Troops,” in these difficult times.
There were no calls of “Your country needs you,” and those of us who expected a little of the rhetoric of either Churchill or Collins, were bitterly disappointed.
Then of course the speech writer’s salary, may have been protected by the Croke Park agreement. This would account fully for this ten minutes of total boredom, which confirmed that this country has now totally surrendered to troops, loyal to “Unternehmen GrĂĽn,” aided by members of Fianna Fail, latter found drunk or sleeping on their watch.
Why not share you thoughts with us on tonight’s “Happening,” and indeed we welcome your views on the austerity measures to be announced over the next two days. You can do same, by using the Comment tag underneath this post.
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby
Discussions by local centre Thurles traders, carrying the banner “Thurles Traders Unite,” who met with Thurles Town Council recently, to discuss more flexible regulations regarding parking restrictions, development charges, the cost of rates etc, ended up receiving a rather negative response. However, very soon it would appear, Thurles Town Council may have to revisit their recent ‘lack lustre,’ decision making.
 Central Thurles While many of the issues reported as put forward by “Thurles Traders Unite,” to our Town Council, have as yet not been decided on, the Irish Governments have started a welcome positive initiative to deliver a multi-annual Action Plan for Jobs, aimed at “making Ireland the best small country to do business with in Europe,” and demanding quarterly targets from each involved department.
Under this new quietly welcomed aim, an implementation group consisting of representatives from the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Forfás will be responsible for ensuring that these targets are met.
Following the publication of Action Plan for jobs, recently by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Employment Richard Bruton, North Tipperary Deputy Noel Coonan is now calling on North Tipperary County Council to “step up to the mark,” and reduce development charges for small businesses.
Noel Coonan TD believes job creation in the country must be kick started immediately and this requires Government and Local Authorities to work to achieve this aim. County and Town councils “must play their part in removing barriers to creating employment.”
Continue reading North Tipperary County & Town Council Charges
Public Transport Minister and North Tipperary Labour TD Alan Kelly has decided to involve himself in a court action with a 70-year-old neighbour, regarding access to a narrow laneway adjoining both their lands.
 Disputed Property The Irish Independent informs us today that this dispute has led to Mr Kelly, hiring a private security firm to block access to the 70 year old pensioner, named as Diana Whitehead, from access to this disputed access road.
The woman, who is reported as separated and living on her own, uses the road, together with local small farmers, who rent land from her, to access fields in rural Tipperary where Ms Whitehead tends to a small number of animals, including goats and donkeys.
A fence had been erected to block the road off, forcing Ms Whitehead to obtain an interim court order, allowing her pedestrian access to her property. She had previously used mechanical vehicles on the lane.
Mr Kelly and Ms Whitehead live alongside each other, outside Portroe, with both of their houses enjoying a spectacular view out over beautiful Lough Derg.
It would appear that the North Tipperary TD Mr Kelly, like his Labour party colleagues, have lost their long held belief in the teachings of James Connolly, whose education in socialism was derived from the writings of Karl Marx.
Marx, you will all remember wanted to take advantage of then existing rebellious chaos and used a newspaper, the ‘Neue Rheinische Zeitung,’ to launch his famous ten point plan, the first point of which was “The abolition of the property /ownership of land.” To use the words of Marx, “The hierarchical structure of land ownership, and the armed bodies of retainers associated with it, give the nobility power over the serfs.”
It would appear I must now re-visit and examine my own personal definition of Socialism “Men with nothing, wishing to share it with everyone else.”
Picture courtesy Independent
A new integrated transport ticketing system called the Leap Card, has been announced today for, yes you guessed it, the Greater Dublin area. As many as 40,000 holders of smart cards on Iarnrod Eireann (30,000) and Luas (10,000), will immediately have their cards replaced with these Leap cards.
North Tipperary’s TD Alan Kelly was on hand, as usual, for photographs and a wee opportunity for a TV spot. (Matthew 18:20 springs to mind “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.“)
The new Leap Card is expected to be available to all commuters by the end of this year. €48m has been spent on the system to date over the last eight years and €55m will have been spent by the time the system is ready to roll.
So now you know why Thurles has no funding for it’s proposed and identified €48m, 8-kilometre, 100 metre wide corridored by-pass. The estimated €48M was spent on an integrated transport ticketing system for Dublin.
 The new Thurles integrated transport system Some good news however for Thurles. We may not have to leap over the shallow end of the river Suir to go shopping this Christmas.
Traffic was at a standstill for 2.5 hours today as workers dropped cement bollards and sand bags into the river to protect the only vehicle crossing into our town. Note, I can not confirm that this means that badly needed repairs to the decaying Barry’s Bridge connecting Thurles to the rest of the world is now imminent. It might have been undertaken because of a severe weather and flood warnings from our good friends in Met Éireann.
Like the new Dublin integrated transport Leap card, one of our resident frogs also came out for a look, but he was to be dissappointed, there was no sign of Alan Kelly, RTE or any other of our North Tipperary politicians in attendance.
Still, all is not lost, Thurles Co-Op are offering a great deal in wellingtons and waterproof waders at present.
 Old Water Mains Water charges are definitely on the cards or else all the leaking water mains in Dublin are now fixed. This statement is borne out by the fact that grant assistance of €1.29 million has been approved for proposals to carry out extensive water mains rehabilitation work in the Thurles area, under the Water Conservation Stage 3 contract.
While this will no doubt be branded by our local TD’s as part of the present Government’s ongoing efforts to improve infrastructure in the Town, trust me when I say it smells to high heaven as the start of preparation for the implementation of domestic water charges.
North Tipperary County Council plan to replace 4km, approximately, of existing cast iron water mains within Thurles, replacing old cast iron pipes laid during the reign of Queen Victoria.
These water mains have been the cause of substantial leakage in the past, and went ignored during the “Tiger years.” Replacing these pipe sections now will minimise future disruption to consumers.
We understand the scheme will go to tender immediately, with the works advancing to the construction stage as soon as possible.
Here’s hoping they are positioned deep enough underground to avoid a total freeze up, as was experienced in parts of Thurles this past winter.
“A speech worthy of a wider audience,” was how Tom Noone, the acting Master of Ceremonies, ably described it on Saturday night last, on the occasion of a banquet, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Thurles Credit Union. Fully supporting Tom’s remark, Thurles.Info is proud to publish, in full, the text of this speech, made at this event, by Guest Speaker, Thurles born, Mark Fielding, Chief Executive of ISME.
Note: ISME is the independent organisation for the Irish small and medium business sector, with in excess of 8,500 members nationwide. ISME’s mission is to independently represent, promote and support owner/managers of small and medium enterprises and be vigilant, decisive, and direct in promoting and defending their interests, while helping members to better manage and grow their business through the provision of excellent information and services.
If you are a small business presently seeking direction, a Minister or Politician (regardless of your party affiliations) a Union organiser, then this text is a must read in full, and at least twice. For in this text Mr Mark Fielding amply expresses the most intimate thoughts and feelings of the people of Ireland today, especially in the light of our current financial state.
Read Mark Fielding’s Address:
“Where there is no vision the people perish.“
“The founders of Thurles Credit Union in 1961 had a vision. I would like to congratulate the Thurles Credit Union, Board, Supervisors, Management and Staff and the members themselves on your anniversary, and on the valuable work that you have carried out since the inception of the organisation in 1961.
 Mark Fielding, Chief Executive, ISME. Credit unions are economically important as they mobilise household savings as loans, and socially important, as that they help create community social capital. Guided by that philosophy, the fundamental business purpose is to provide high quality financial services at fair prices to anyone who wants them. By excelling at this purpose, they build the capital reserves needed for sustainability. They are a vital store of intergenerational capital and a facilitator of community social capital.
In time consolidation may see the network consolidate down to less than 100 larger, sustainable credit unions, while maintaining most of the existing branch footprint. Wisely used, state funding will restructure credit unions into a modern credit co-operative system.
Some local politicians have accused Mathew Elderfield of driving people into the arms of loan sharks. Perhaps they should consider why so many credit unions are in financial trouble and why others like Thurles CU are in rude health; why lending has been restricted in some and continues to grow in places like Thurles. It is important to distinguish between a credit union and the people who govern and manage them and here again Thurles is an exemplar.
With the Government and Central Bank intent on stabilising the sector, credit unions need to realise the opportunity it proposes and through prudent management, become a leader in the sector.
When I was asked to speak on this occasion I began to think about what I would have said to a gathering of Thurles people back in 1961, the year of the birth of this fine Credit Union. So Imagine, if you would, what someone like me would say about the FUTURE, back there in 1961, allowing our fancy take flight, looking forward to the next 50 years, back then.
Continue reading Mark Fielding – No Vision People Perish
It was a colourful and moving ceremony today at Dublin Castle, when Mr Michael D Higgins made his Declaration of Office and received his Presidential Seal from the Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham.
 Ireland's First Lady & Ninth President Elect. Inaugural speech of President Michael D Higgins
Muintir na hÉireann and friends of Ireland at home and abroad, there can be no greater honour than to have been elected Uachtarán na hÉireann – President of Ireland. I thank you the people of Ireland for the honour you have bestowed upon me and I accept and appreciate the great responsibilities of that office. Citizens of Ireland, you have chosen me to be your ninth President, to represent you at home and abroad, and to serve as a symbol of an Irishness of which we can all be proud. An Irishness which is carried by every citizen and which we must recall and forge anew together.
I enter the ninth Presidency with a sense of humility, but also with confidence in the great capacity of our people, the people of Ireland, not only to transcend present difficulties but to realise all of the wonderful possibilities that I believe await us in the years ahead. I wish to acknowledge the immense contribution of those who have previously served in this office, particularly the two great women who have immediately preceded me.
Continue reading Michael D Higgins Inaugurated Ninth Irish President
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